Thursday, April 17, 2014

Personal power station

So, I have been shot voltage v v power recently. The Steve Harry presentation e voltage versus is out of the water so I can't use its batteries & having just bought a new Van battery I am illogically precious about it.

So it felt like time to sort the situation out in time for the sun and as I need my pc now.

The funny thing about electricity is that to most people it's almost indistinguishable from magic. We have no idea how it works, can't see it and don't understand it. So I spent a while researching tech, reading a couple of books & understanding the science. stuff on his site really helped although Amazon.co.uk doesn't sell exactly the same bits.

the orange toolbox is the original one i bought, then i found the smaller green toolbox in a skip at the marina

everything just fits..

here is the kit in case anyone is interested. click on the links to buy from amazon. they dont pay me or anything i just thought it may help. you will also need wire, crimpers, electrical tape & a sense of adventure

Sizing the system, I wanted something portable that would give me 7-10 days of power.
charging my phone once a day uses 3a per day so 21-30ah . assuming a battery discharge of no more than 50% i needed a 42-60 ah battery

65w pannel creates 65/12 (because you are going into a 12v battery system) = 5.4a so it puts 5.4amps per hour x 6 hours a day = 32.4amps per day into the battery. thus i can recharge the 50% of storage i use in 10 days in only 1 day of good sun !